Mass Effect Echoes of War
by LightningS9
Summary: The Story of Commander Samantha Shepard and crew, from begining to end and maybe beyond, recruiting many allies along the way, from Metroid, Gears of War, Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma, and even Prototype. Warning: The crossovers don't happen right away so don't dive in thinking they will be there right away. I rated it M because of Gore and other possible other things.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All obvious or otherwise Mass Effect characters belong to Bioware. Anyone you know that isn't in the ME universe is mine (meaning the obvious mentioning of Shepard's siblings later)

**CE 2186…1000 hours…July 17…Purgatory, The Citadel**

As Commander Samantha Shepard sat in her black leather skirt there in Purgatory she continued to fiddle with her Omni-tool checking the Citadels map. She had just got done checking on her old friend Ashley Williams for the second time at Huerta Memorial Hospital and now was passing the time finding out where she may go next after she met up with her adoptive brother. She had already been waiting for him for at least an hour and was contemplating leaving when she saw a figure approach from behind the hologram of the map. She moved it to see a man in a set of glossy pitch black, highly advanced armor with red stripes that angled down his shoulders to his feet standing across from her table.

The armor was an amalgam of modified parts of ones she recognized; the shoulders were most likely of Hahne-Kedar but they were thicker, the power cells inside most likely pumping out twice the power to his weapons. The legs were originally Serrice Council made, but had since been modified specifically for Tech combat use so as to optimize the performance of the cells inside, causing the armored surface wires to glow slightly orange. The arms and chest were of Armax Arsenal, the arms were slightly licker all around but also had a strange add-on, a box like object that was part of the armor that extended down the length of his forearms. At its front closest to his hands a sharpened spike was mostly retreated into a tunnel in the box. The back of the chest plate, in its original form, reminded her of the armor that belonged to the dinosaur-like krogan Grunt she once had on her ship, the Normandy.

This one however had replace it entirely with a large block of metal that seemed similar to a backpack, the sides of the backpack had tanks of a glowing blue liquid she recognized as element zero, or Eezo, partially inside of it. On the front she could see many embroidered symbols starting on the right chest, exactly where her own N7 symbol was on her own armor back on the Normandy. The five symbols were in a block that covered a large portion of the front. A wire extended from the backpack up to the Death Mask helm he wore, which appeared to be the only unmodified piece of the equipment beyond the plug in slot. Its eye slots had an ethereal white glowing from them.

"You're late, Jason." She said to the man as she motioned for him to sit across from her on the rounded couch in the cubby area she was in.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I've been busy coordinating with Kirrahe over a secure channel, our special enforcements are still a little unsure of the situation and he's too busy with some classified assignment on Sur'Kesh to…." He began as he was squeezing himself into the couch, though the large block made it more difficult for him to slide in than most.

"It's fine, I get it." She assured him. "I just wanted to talk to you for a while, there's no telling if we can get through this and I just wanted to catch up."

"I guess we can, Sam, if you really want too." He said after a moment.

"Good..." she relaxed in the couch, letting her shoulder length violet hair fall from where it was tucked behind her ears as her head rested on the cushion, the club lights reflecting slightly on her light tan skin, "could you imagine this is where we would end up when we were with the Reds."

"I doubt any of us could have guessed this is where we would be now, it's not like the Reapers gave us a warning before we even got off our home world." He answered bluntly, "You never told me if you ever got over that night..."

"What does that matter?" she snaps.

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No…it's okay…I don't think I have all the way."

"Is that why you tried to keep me from doing much when we were after Saren?"

"Maybe." she says as she looks away from the table, watching James Vega and the soldiers she talked to earlier enjoy the drinks she bought them.

"Well…do you want to talk about it…get it off your chest?" he ask hesitantly.

She sighs before answering, "I guess…maybe it will make things better, though now it seems like the past should be the least of my worries."

"Yeah, but you have to be focused for this, more so than when we were gunning for the Collectors."

She knew he wouldn't drop the subject, especially since she had let it slip that she was still bothered by the experience. She couldn't stand how he could still do that to her, make her tell him things she would never dream to tell others in great detail, no matter how close.

"I know." She sighs once more. "Well…"

**CE 2172…2200 hours…April 10...10****th**** Streets Reds base in the Atlanta Slums**

Samantha sits with her Predator in her hand, the smoke filling the room as if the building was on fire. She always hated coming here. The men in this back ally whore house always stared hungrily at her and her younger sister, and all it would take is one failed mission for either one of them to end up being an offering to the filth who littered this place.

"You okay, sis?" asked the blonde 15 year old sitting next to her with a rusty Avenger in her lap.

"Yeah, Rebecka, this loveseat is just uncomfortable as hell." She lied as she shifted.

"When do you think big bro's gona be finished getting the briefin? It's not like we haven't cleared a warehouse before." Rebecka complained

Just then the door to the Reds leaders' room opened. Out stepped the dashing 18 year old that she recognized as her adoptive older brother Jason.

"Fox, Tigress, let's go." He said seriously as he made his way towards the halls that lead through the front rooms and to the exit

"Oh goody, where are we going brother? That took waaaay to long to just be a warehouse heist brief." Rebecka said excitedly as she hopped up from the couch, replacing the Avenger to the holster on her back.

"Not here little one," He answered calmly, "too many places enemy gang members could hide."

As they grew closer to the exit she could hear the sound of rain outside.

"Great, so now were gona have to do this in the rain." Samantha complained.

"I thought you liked the rain sis?" Rebecka asked

"Yeah when we can use it to bathe not when we're on a mission, now I won't get a bath for at least another week and the rains gonna make me smell rancid with all the smoke from this dump mixing with my hair." She pouted.

Jason chuckled as he opened the door to the ally. The rain poured hard outside reminding Samantha of a vid she had found of Kahje, the Hanar home world, in the burned school across from the abandoned apartment they lived at. As they stepped into the heavy rain it quickly soaked through their cloths. The two girls huddled next to their brother's side to keep warm until they got to their destination.

Jason put his arms on their shoulders and they turn the corner from the ally to the sidewalk when Rebecka asks, "So can you tell us now where we're goin and what we're doin?"

"We're going to the warehouse district to Warehouse 58," he answered quietly, "It's supposed belong to a man named Henry Lawson."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Anything from the Mass Effect universe other than (so far) Jason and Rebecka belong to Bioware

The cold rain continued to pour on the trio's heads as they walked down the street, though now it was much lighter. When Samantha looked up she could see the moon behind the elegant skyscrapers and the flying cars in the distance. They turned to cross the street to get to the junkyard across it. They moved to rest under an awning but Jason moved to go deeper in once they separated.

"Where are you going?" Sam said as she stopped him.

"I'm going to hunt for a functional ride so that we get to the warehouse district before the night ends. Mr. Lawson is a very rich man according to the bosses and we'll need every advantage to eliminate his security." He stated bluntly

"*sniff* Maybe I should come bro, I'm a better Tech than you and sister, I might find it faster." Rebecka offered as she moved closer while she rubbed her arms to warm herself.

"No, little one, you already sound as if you are catching cold and we don't have the credits to get you treatment if you get pneumonia or bronchitis."

Both of the girls gave a worried look at him that he knew meant "but what if…" so he assured them he would be fine and would be back soon before venturing further inside.

The two girls waited for a full half hour before Jason finally returned. The car he found was a very old model and was almost completely coated in rust but he had apparently jury-rigged it to at least get them to the warehouse. As the top opened and Jason turned to them he threw them some jackets he had found in the back.

"They seem to be well made, and rain resistant *sniff*," he stated to them, "they should keep the two of you warm and dry during the mission."

"What about you Jason?" Samantha replied.

"I'll be…"

"If you say "I'll be fine." again I'll slap you, I haven't had the sniffles yet so I can go without, you are going to wear this jacket and like it you got that." She replied in an irritated tone with her hands on her hips after throwing the jacket back at him.

He laughs as he begins to slip on the jacket. "Ok, Ok, Sam, I'll put it on" He said with a smile.

After he slid his jacket on and Rebecka had done the same they all huddled into the car and began to drive towards the warehouse district. The rain was almost gone now as they drove through the sky above the filthy slums they called home. Samantha checked her Omni-tool for the time. It was going on midnight standard earth time, meaning they had maybe four or five hours before the sun would arise and their jobs would get harder, and it already made her uneasy. The usual hits that the Reds would have them do were on relatively cheap warehouses that usually belonged to other gangs, but this one belonged to a very rich tycoon who could bring a hammer of doom down on the gang. She hoped that whatever was in there was worth it because if there was even one screw up from the other teams, the Reds were done for. The car began to slow and lower as they got a block away from the entrance of the warehouse district.

"You guys have your Omni-tools comms set to the right channel right?" Samantha asked.

"Had it done before we left the boss's place sis." Rebecka answered happily.

"Good job Rebecka," she turned to face Jason, "and you?"

"I had it set after I found the car." Jason replied. He turned to face her, the moonlight just coming across his face illuminating his deep blue eyes as he looked at her, "What about you?"

"I did it at the awning." She quickly answered as she blushed, she quickly changed the subject. "So here's the plan, we need to split up before we even attempt to approach this place, a group could attract more attention than necessary."

"Right, so who's going where?" Jason asked seriously as he pulled his Mantis sniper rifle from his back and began to check it over in his lap.

"Let's see." Samantha says to herself as she activates her Omni-tool and opens a hologram of a map of the next five blocks in front of her along with part of a blueprint for the warehouse. "From what I can tell on here there may be three ways in, We got a heavy security door in a back ally that Tigress can hack through, a service shaft above the front for you Wolf, and possibly an unmarked way on the roof, like a window or something, or at least a vantage point for me."

"Quick question," Rebecka says as she leans between the front seats, "why do we use these codenames, sis?"

"That's not important right now Tigress." She replies.

"It's so that we can have titles that are respectable in the Reds," Jason answers without looking up from his Mantis, "besides, I think they help your sister focus." He finishes with a smile.

"Now really isn't the time for teasing, Wolf, we only have maybe four hours before the sun rises and…" Sam says in an irritated tone.

"Point taken, Fox." Jason says with a chuckle while Rebecka begins to giggle in the back.

"Anyway…From what I can see the best course would be for Tigress to try first. If she gets in we follow, and if she doesn't or sets off an alarm I can use my biotics to lift her to the roof, then while the outer guards are scrambled you can get in through the front or I can use a place in the roof, maybe Overload an air conditioning unit or Warp a way through if things get bad. Damn do I hate the Reds intel, it always sucks, incomplete blueprints, making us resort to guess work and not a lick on the state of security."

"Don't worry, Fox, it will be fine."

Samantha sighs before closing the holograms. "Okay, Jason, just…both of you be careful, please." She said in a worried tone.

Jason places a comforting hand on Samantha's shoulder, but doesn't say a word. Even without any words being said, however, the action gave her great comfort. Jason always had a way to make missions like this work. No matter how bad things got, he would always be there, perhaps that was why she was…

She stopped herself from that train of thought; there was no way he would accept the idea and the tension could get any of them hurt.

"You okay Fox?" Jason asks

The question snaps her out of her train of thought, "I…I'm fine, let's go."

Jason opens the roof of the car and the three step out of it. They split up as they go up the street. Jason heads through the ally next to them and seemingly disappears into the shadows, while Rebecka just walks down the street, as the youngest she could walk the street and pass as an urchin. With the other two gone Samantha goes to the entrance of the ally and, with a combination of biotics and acrobatics she pushes from one wall to the other until she was on the roof of the left warehouse. As her feet land on the roof she slips for a moment because of the slight mist of rain that was falling that was coating the roof. Using her biotics once more she catches her balance and looks forward to see the city in the distance again, though much closer than before. The elegant sky scrapers seemed to attempt to touch the moon in the night. She wished deep down the three of them could leave these slums and live there, to be rid of the Reds and live as a real family. Perhaps she could contact the nice Alliance scientists that brought her and Jason some L3 implants last year, or maybe when Rebecka turned eighteen in the next three year they could all enlist and leave earth and the Reds behind together.

"I'm in position across the street from the warehouse. Fox, Tigress, status."

Once again Samantha is snapped back to reality. She begins to answer when she is interrupted by Rebecka.

"I'm already hacking the door, but this guy aint playin with the security, already had to get two guys in heavy armor out the way and this is some top notch stuff."

"What's your estimate on the hack, Tigress" Samantha asks as she begins to run across the roofs carefully.

"Looks like maybe another 15 if I can get somebody to keep the patrols off of me." Rebecka answers.

The sky began to darken as clouds began to move over the moon, making it harder for Samantha to see; luckily she was on the roof next to Warehouse 58 before the following rain began to pour again. Using her biotics she began to lower herself down from the roof into the ally below, she could see the orange and red glow of Rebecka's Omni-tool and the panel she was hacking.

"Annnd…..Got it!" Rebecka states in an excited whisper over the comm as the panel changed from red to green and the door slid open.

As Samantha drew closer she saw shattered ice and meat hunks littering the ground which she recognized as the pieces of the guards that Rebecka undoubtedly hit with her Cryo Blast then broke to kill them. She maneuvered around the remains to get to the door and get inside. After she made it around them she looked up to see Jason and Rebecka motioning for her to hurry inside.

The inside the building was dimly lit, but nothing they weren't used to. After some quick hand signals between the trio, they split up to clear the building of its guards.

"Remember Tigress," Jason says in a near soundless whisper, "we want to be as quiet as possible, make sure you are ready for the kill before you disrupt their shields. Do not do what you did outside in here unless absolutely necessary, ok?"

"Ok, gosh, I aint a kid anymore, I know what to do!" She retorted as she pulled away.

Once Rebecka was out of earshot Jason motioned for Samantha to follow her and said "Don't let her see you but if you have to, take out anyone she has trouble with."

Samantha nods in response and Jason heads back outside to get rid of the outer guards. After he is outside Samantha closes the door and turns to go after Rebecka. She could hear the echoes of at least twenty occupants in the building and figured it would take another hour to clear the building. She slowed as she noticed a strange symbol on the metal crates, a black gem with an open bottom with yellow borders on the sides that didn't connect at the top or bottom. Suddenly Samantha could hear Rebecka shout in the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Anything that, obviously or otherwise belongs to Bioware does. Jason and Rebecka are mine and they are the only ones so far.

Samantha frantically moved towards where her adoptive little sister had headed, praying on every step that she hadn't been caught. The echoes of the other occupants footsteps reverberated in such rapid succession that she could no longer tell how many there were. She slows as she reaches the corner to the aisle where Rebecka was. She could hear voices from around the corner. Looking around it she could see a pair of heavily armored guards in white and black armor, one of which held a limp Rebecka by the collar of her jacket, her long, still wet hair covering her face from view, and an empty combat syringe.

"Where do you think she came from?" said the one holding Rebecka.

"Don't know, judging by the cloths she's a street rat, maybe she snuck in when the last shipment was sent out." answered the other.

"Doubt it, there's nothing in these boxes other than red sand and other drugs, nothing she could survive on for long, and she can't escape easy. No she must be with the group the Reds warned us about."

Samantha's heart dropped and her head began to race with this latest news, the Reds have betrayed them. She didn't know what to do.

"Should we have her shipped to Pragia once the next shuttle gets here?" asks the second soldier.

"No, she's too old for that, maybe that new project, Project Rothla?" the other responded as, after he threw her Avenger to the floor, he lifted Rebecka and threw her over his shoulder.

Samantha was frozen as they turned and began to walk the other way, as they reached the other end of the hall the other guards arrived in front of them and they, now out of earshot of her began to speak again for a moment before heading out of sight down the hall. Suddenly there was something pressed to the back of her head.

"Don't move." Samantha was frozen to her spot as a feminine voice demanded this of her.

"I want you to drop that gun and turn slowly."

Samantha did as she was told. When she turned she saw the woman who was holding her captive now. In full armor just as the two men's, same color scheme and such other than the obvious physical differences, and from this close she could see the woman's brown eyes from beyond the glass slits in her helmet.

"Now I want you to…Ugh!" the woman exclaimed as an orange light piece through the front of her chest as Jason began to materialize behind her. He pulled back after a moment and dispersed his Omni-blade after letting her drop to the floor.

"Sam, what happened?" He asks in an urgent tone.

In the distance they could hear the large door to the front opening as Samantha answered. "They got Tigress, damn it Jason they got Rebecka! We have to…."

"Intruders *cough* my position…" The woman on the floor said before the rapid blood loss finally got to her. The sound of the heavy rain outside made it impossible to hear anything beyond the pounding of large raindrops on the most likely metal shuttle in the doorway and the tile floor of the warehouse.

"We have to go." Jason stated as he bent and grabbed Samantha's Predator off the floor. After handing it to her he grabs her hand and begins pulling her forward down the aisle towards the front, picking up Rebecka's Avenger as they pass it and placing it on the holster on his back next to his Mantis, which he then draws after the Avenger is secure. Jason lets go of Samantha's hand and grips his Mantis before they reach the corner. Once there, he stops and places a hand out to stop the still frantic Samantha from running out and getting spotted. He could feel her shaking nervously under his arm as he pulled her back. He placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down, which worked slightly, and began to peek around the corner. He could see six guards approaching from down the hall with the rest either waiting around or loading crates into the shuttles. The six heading towards them went one by one down aisles as they headed towards the pair. Jason stepped back and readied his Omni-blade. Samantha backed up and tried to recompose herself, watching as Jason stabbed through the guard's helmet and pulled him in, throwing him to the shadows between some crates too their left, using his biotics to slow his body to lower noise production. He then turns to Samantha.

"Are you ok now Sam?" he says in a quiet, comforting tone.

Samantha nods, now calmed, and quickly states, "Yeah, I got something important to tell you after we get Rebecka."

"Sure, so, what's the plan?" He asks.

Samantha moves to see around the corner to get a look at the situation. "I can't see Tigress anywhere, so I assume she's in one of the shuttles. If we can get in and can highjack the one she is on we can get out of here."

She looks back at Jason who is looking back down the hall. Looking around him she sees that the woman's body is now surrounded by a group of guards. She and Jason then turn and move quickly towards the group at the shuttles. Samantha makes the first move, using her biotics to throw the three closes to her as hard as she could. Without slowing down, Jason activates his Disruptor ammo mod and fires at the one farthest in the back, his fine-tuned Mantis plus his mod cuts through the shields and shatter's the guard's faceplate, going right between his eyes. The other guards scatter, some enter the shuttles as others begin to arm themselves and use the aisles and larger crates as cover. Jason slows to a stop and lets Samantha take the lead as she activates her Tech Armor and charges forward. The first to go is the only guard to survive Samantha's biotic throw, who she immediately riddles with slugs as she tries to stand. The next three are eliminated by Jason who, with a well-placed shot gets a triple head shot. Samantha finally closes in on the first shuttle and is greeted by a shotgun wielding pilot who immediately shoots her. Luckily all it does is knock her back a step because of her Tech Armor, though she sees he is charging his biotics and plans to charge her as she stumbles. Before he can charge Samantha detonates her armor, the resulting explosion knocks the pilot off his feet and disrupts his biotic shield. Taking the opportunity, she throws a Warp at him, the fluctuating biotic field rending the pilot's armor and flesh, turning him into a bloody mess on the floor of the shuttle. There is a yell as a guard wielding a shock baton charges Samantha from her right. Before she can get close enough to do anything she is suddenly lifted and violently slammed to the floor by Jason's biotics, Samantha could hear her bones crack under the armor and after bouncing from the impact she lies still. Samantha then turns and begins to search the shuttle, calling for Rebecka as she goes. She makes it to the cockpit and there is still no sign of Rebecka. She hears the door to the cockpit slide open and turns, ready to shoot, to see Jason backing in, using Rebecka's Avenger.

"The others got back, we're cornered!" he yells over the sound of the Avenger's burst.

"No we're not!" Samantha states as she turns to the front windows of the shuttle and after shooting a few shots into it, uses her biotics to throw the rest of the window out of the way. After climbing out of the window she turns to cover Jason as he does the same. As soon as Jason get sout however there is the chilling sound of a mass effect core powering as the shuttle next to them begins to take off.

"NO!" Samantha yells as she begins to fire at the fleeing shuttles cockpit, Jason follows suit as soon as he is out of the window of the still shuttle. Their weapons pierce the windows but miss the pilot, who then shut's the blast walls of the shuttle. The pair continue to fire until both of their weapons overheat, and even then Jason switches to his Mantis again and continues to fire until the shuttle is out of range, the heavy rain making it too hard see anymore. Samantha begins to sob as Jason turns hearing the splashing of the six guards. Jason grabs Samantha's hand and begins to pull her down the street, heading back to the car. Samantha continues to sob behind him as they run down the street, her voice more than likely acting as a beacon to the guards chasing them until Jason pulls her into an ally just before the street corner.

"Samantha, calm down!" Jason says sternly with both his hands placed firmly on her shoulders.

She just sobs more this time however, her head lowered and her soaked red hair covering her face. "She's gone Jason *sob* she's gone!" she weeps.

Jason loosens his grip on her shoulders, and then slides his arms around her and embraces her.

"Shhhh, we can still find her Sam," the sound of splashing steps begin to arise over the sound of the pounding rain, "we just have to make it back to the car and we might catch up."

Samantha sniffles before answering "Ok."

The pair then begin to run again to the car. As they round the corner they can see the car in the distance. They speed even faster towards it and Jason uses his Omni-tool to begin opening the roof. Before it opens however there is a loud, procession of three beeps before the car suddenly explodes sending the pair flying back. Samantha quickly scrambles to her feet and looks to see Jason still on the floor.

"What are you waiting…" she stops as she hears him growling in pain and sees a large piece of debris from the car jutting from his thigh.

Jason looks up at her and then looks back towards the ally before saying "Run."

"Wha…No, I'm not leaving you!" she yells back, barely holding back the tears.

"I don't want you to get caught Sam." He says solemnly.

"Please Jason," the warm tears mixing with the cold rain as they run down her face, "don't make me leave you too."

Jason shifts himself on the ground and draws his Mantis. "Go, Sam. I'll hold them off for as long as I can, go back to the apartment and find that card that Alliance guy gave us and…" he stops as he sees the guards exit the ally, and he takes a shot at the first downing him.

Samantha just stands there for a moment until Jason yells "Go!" at her once more. She does as he says and begins to run back to the apartment. She looks back momentarily just in time to see Jason overwhelmed by the only two guards that could close in on him before continuing on. She runs all the way back to the apartment without stopping, sobbing the whole way there. When she finally arrives, she enters the front door and checks her Omni-tool for the time, finding it to be only five in the morning. She slides to the floor against the wall and weeps, wondering how it was possible that everything she loved could be gone in such a short time. She stays there for at least another hour and a half before going to find the card just as her brother asked before locking down the apartment. The next afternoon, after a terrible mornings sleep, she wakes, puts on her cloths, and leaves behind the apartment forever.


	4. Chapter 4

Author: Robert Highsmith

Game: Mass Effect

Disclaimer: Anything that, obviously or otherwise belongs to Bioware does. Jason and Rebecka are mine as are the characters after the bold and the soon to be mentioned two before but otherwise…yeah

**CE 2186…1200 hours…July 17…Purgatory, The Citadel**

"So I guess that's why you are so reserved about your past."

Samantha turned in horror to see Garrus Vakarian standing at the table. She is frozen as Garrus begins to slide into the cubicle towards her.

"How long have you been standing there?" Samantha said with slightly rosy cheeks.

"Long enough to hear you had a crush on Jason back when you two were kids." He answered which made her whole face turn a bright scarlet.

"What are you doing here Garrus?" She asked shakily as Garrus placed his arm on the back of the couch behind her head.

"Well I was down at the docking bays coordinating assistance to the turian soldiers and refugees pouring into the Citadel, but while I was taking a break I figured I'd come find you and when EDI sent back an aggravated message about some comedy her and Joker were at when I asked where you were I messaged ALI and she said you both were here at Purgatory."

Samantha turns and glares at her brother.

"Did you O.K. that bitch to call him here Jason?" She asks still glaring

Suddenly there is a feminine voice coming out of the speakers of Jason's helmet "I just thought it best for Mr. Vakarian to join in to our conversation."

Jason then begins to remove the modified Death Mask type helmet from his head after pulling a plug from the back that connected to it from the backpack. After pulling the helmet off himself and sitting it on the table he begins straightening his deep black hair on the sides and flipping the bangs upward.

"Why, ALI? What the hell gave you the idea to let my boyfriend know where I was when I was talking about an old crush?!" Samantha yells furiously in the direction of her brother who, smirk on his face, points for her to focus her attention on the helmet rather than him.

"I simply thought Mr. Vakarian would like to know more of your past, it was not to my knowledge that you had any prior relationship with Jason. I apologize, perhaps I should make a note and tell Mrs. Vas Normandy of this next…

"No!" Samantha and Jason yell simultaneously as Garrus began to laugh.

"But shouldn't I tell Mrs. Tali of this so that there is no romantic tension between Mr. Vakarian and you?" ALI says as puzzled as an AI can sound.

"No ALI that would make things worse in regular circumstances. There's no tension here though so you don't have to worry." Garrus says reassuringly through the last of his laughter. He then turns to Samantha "In fact, I think it was a great idea, you hardly ever open up, I'm glad to know your opening up to someone instead of bottling it in, I don't want anything to happen to you…uh, you know, for the good of the galaxy and all that."

"Thanks, Garrus." Samantha says before kissing him on his left mandible.

"So now that we finished that story what's next?" Jason asks

"I vote you tell us what you did those two years I was dead, Jason, How'd you get Grigori and the others to join us?" Samantha says the group.

"I want to hear more of your pseudo-romance stories from when you were younger Sam." Garrus teases and then immediately nudged by the commander.

"Perhaps we should continue chronologically with the events any of us were in and continue with your involvement in the Skyllian Blitz." ALI chimes in.

"Seconded, bound to be more interesting than Archangel's idea at least." comes a new voice. The group then turns to their left to see the Queen of Omega, Aria T'Loak, sliding in to sit at their table on Jason's side. Once seated she turns to her turian guard. "Hey Tarriik, go get us some drinks, these stories are bound to be long."

"Wha…You've been listening in?!" Samantha questions distraughtly.

"Yes, ma'am," Tarriik answers Aria before looking at the whole group in general "what does everyone want?"

"Get me a couple bottles of turian brandy; we need some on the Normandy." Garrus tells Tarriik.

"Water's fine for me, I don't drink, hate being hazy let alone full on drunk, and we'll be here a while so most here would be wasted by the time me and Sam finish catching up." Jason says as he goes to access his credit account on his Omni-tool when he is stopped by Aria

"What's the matter, Wolf, my money to dirty for you or something?"

"Nah, it's just I didn't want to waste your creds getting water's all."

"Well you can turn that thing off, I'm buying these drinks, now stop being so gentlemanly, you're making me sick." Aria states as she forces Jason's hand down.

Samantha looks bewilderedly at Garrus and Jason "What the hell guys, you're encouraging this." she suddenly burst out. As the rest of the group turns to look at her and give her their own "WTF" looks. She sighs before lowering her head, raising her arm and saying "Just get me a Ryncol, I don't care anymore."

"Then you won't mind if I join, will you Lola? Get me a Dos Equis my friend!" Blurts the cheery voice of Lieutenant James Vega from behind Tarriik. Tarriik then leaves after James's request to fetch everyone's drinks and James takes a seat next to Garrus.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" Samantha yells into the air causing more than a couple of nearby patrons to stop and look curiously at the group.

"Who's next?! Hell maybe we should call and tell EDI and Joker to come bustin in here to hear all about my past, or maybe convince Javik to suddenly get the urge to get off the ship and come to join in, or tell Liara to come take notes as I spill out my history!" She rants.

"Those are unlikely scenarios Commander Shepard, with his condition Mr. Moreau is unable to "come bustin in" anywhere, even if they weren't preoccupied at this moment. Mr. Javik likely already knows your history because of the prothean melds he performed on Eden Prime and the Normandy so he would have little reason to come here. Ms. T'soni may like to listen, if she doesn't already know this information, Should I message her?" ALI asks innocently.

"Yeah, that's a great idea!" Garrus exclaims jokingly.

"Wha…N...No!" Samantha stammers.

"I am sorry Commander; I have already sent the request."

"ALI…" Samantha says as she begins to face-palms herself.

"If it is any consolation she has responded with "Already know, but thanks anyway." Commander, so she will not be joining us."

"Great," Samantha says sarcastically, "I'm gonna have to talk to her later. She's gotten so nosey."

"It is part of her job Sam." Jason says calmly.

Tarriik returns with a waitress assisting him in carrying everyone's drinks, carefully handing Aria a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy before he and the waitress hand out the remaining drinks and glasses. He then takes a stance next to Aria's seat without showing signs of sitting.

"Okay, now that the drinks are here can everyone shut it with the useless shit and let Shepard start her story now?" Aria asks gruffly.

"Sure." Says the group as they turn to Samantha.

"No." She says as she turns away from them all.

"Please, Sam, you really can't leave them all hangin like that, can you?" Jason asks slyly.

She turns and faces him, a begging look in his deep blue eyes; she then turns to Garrus who uses the same look in his icy blue eyes as well. She lets out a large sigh and then drinks a shot of Ryncol.

"Fine, you wanna hear it, here it goes. It started in early February…"

**CE 2176…1400 hours…February 9…Illyria, Elysium**

Samantha continued to walk down the street following her friends, Sally Bradshaw and Vicky Rodham, towards Xenosis, a new club that had opened up just a week before they were on leave here three days ago at the edge of the colony. The sky was getting cloudy, almost like rain, which was enough to get her in the mood to drink so she was glad to see the bright gold hologram sign that read "Xenosis" across it.

"Finally, we made it!" Vicky cheers as she turns and grabs Samantha and Sally's hands, "Come on girls, before the cute guys get taken!"

"Slow down Vicky!" Samantha says as she pulls back, "You know I'm terrible at running in heels!"

"Oh I'm sorry girl." Vicky apologizes before she goes ahead of the other two girls.

"She is waaay to excitable." Sally states before moving to catch up with Vicky

Samantha pulls at her black leather mini-skirt to straighten it and begins walking towards the club once more. As she draws closer she sees that there is a massive line to get into the club formed outside when Vicky, green mini-purse swaying in the bend of her arm, waddles in her shimmering green tinfoil mini-skirt and light brown thigh-high boots towards her.

"There's a line Sam!" She whines.

"I told you there would be." Samantha says as she looks around Vicky to see where Sally is, spotting her in her fancy black and blue dress talking with a turian guy, her body language suggesting she is flirting. Curious to what she is looking at Vicky turns around and spots Sally as well.

"Ugh, I just don't know what she sees in those things, so hard and sharp, it's a wonder she doesn't walk funny from the chaffing she probably gets every time she hooks up with one." Vicky says rudely.

"Was that necessary?" Sam states irritated by Vicky's rudeness.

Vicky gets a sad look on her face, "I'm sorry." she says regretfully, "I guess that was my dad talking through me again."

"I know." Samantha says as she hugs a now teary eyed Vicky. Samantha understood that most soldiers in the Alliance had either been born to someone, was a grandchild of, or had been through the First Contact War, and some had become xenophobic from the experience…especially towards turians.

"Thanks girl!" Vicky says, her cheery attitude returning. She turns back to the line and, while for a second she seems sad she gets one of those "idea" faces and motions Samantha to follow as she makes her way to Sally, who she yanks away from the turian causing her to shriek. They make their way to the front of the line and approaching the bouncer at the door.

Vicky turns to the other two girls and quickly orders in a whisper, "Look sexy girls!"

Sally and Samantha exchange confused looks as Vicky turns back and approaches the bouncer, the large man towering over the five foot girl.

"Excuse me handsome, can I maybe trouble you to get us in?"

He looks down at her and then over at Samantha and Sally. Then without a word he moves over and motions for the trio to go inside. Vicky looks back, her smile reaching ear to ear, before hurrying inside as Sam and Sally follow. Inside they find a large black tile dance floor crowded with patrons of most of the Citadel races, the lights illuminating the dance floor in many different ways. It must have been a theme night because they were playing cheesy 20th century music that Sam recognized only because of the old IPod that Jason found in the apartment all those years ago and kept. Vicky immediately runs to the dance floor and begins dancing with a young human man she spotted.

"Man is she fast in those boots." Sally says with a smile, she turns after a moment noticing Sam isn't making her way to the dance floor herself. "Aren't you coming?"

"Nah, I'll just be at the bar." Sam answers solemnly.

Sally shrugs and walks onto the dance floor, dancing her way into the crowd out of view. With her gone Samantha did just as she said she was going to, scanning the lower floor before she walked up the stairs, finding a second smaller dance floor and the DJ, she walks forward until she sees the large bar lined along the wall to her left directly across from the DJ . Sitting down at the bar she called over the salarian bartender.

"Hi, my name is Healion, what can I get for you miss?" He says quickly.

"Any drink that can make me deaf until my friends decide they want to leave." She answers.

"Ha, you don't like classical human music of your species miss?" Healion says as he pours her a blue drink, "I myself enjoy it, though this isn't my favorite of your classics. I prefer the thing your species called "Gangster Rap", though I also found "Metal" and "Rock" to be a little interesting, though the titles always confounded me." He rambles

"That's what an old friend of mine liked most, the metal and rock I mean," Sam states sadly as she takes in a large gulp of her drink, "always found it weird cause we grew up in a place where most people who listen to classical usually like country or such if they listened to it at all, and ironically that was his least favorite genre." She ends with a small laugh.

"He sounds like an interesting character must have been a parent or grandparent since they liked classics."

"No, he was only 18, would have been 19 in May, when I last saw him."

"He must have been odd, since he was into this at such a young age."

"No, he just loved good music," Sam laughs, "he couldn't make it worth a shit and he DEFINETLY couldn't dance, he could sing, though he never did it where anyone could hear, too nervous." Sam smiles at the memory but frowns once she is reminded of that night, taking another large gulp of the drink.

"He sounds special to you. An old mate?" he asks.

She blushes before stuttering, "N…No, nothing like that."

"Ah, I see, you must have looked to this person from afar then." He persists.

"Why are you so curious about me?" she asks angrily, "What would a Salarian know about relationships anyway? Aren't you incapable of courtship emotions or something?"

"Ah, so you're well educated, must be with the Alliance." He says calmly, "Not all of us are incapable of courtship, but the ones who are capable are usually are with an asari, like me. I must apologize about prying. By nature salarians tend to be curious, and when we know that someone is being secretive we pursue the secret, and our culture rewards those who discover the secret."

"Oh…I'm sorry Healion, my anger was uncalled for, and the comment was rude." Sam apologized.

"Oh, it is fine miss…"

"Shepard, Commander Samantha Shepard." She says as she reaches to shake Healion's hand.

"I see you made a friend, that's good."

Sam turns to see Sally.

As Sally moves to the seat next to her Sam asks, "Couldn't find anyone to dance with?"

"Nope, that guy outside the club…"

She is cut off by the sudden sound of screaming and gunfire over the music.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Sally, Healion, and Vicky are mine

Sam quickly gets down from the chair she was in at the bar, pulling up her skirt to her upper thigh revealing a Carnifex pistol strapped to her leg. She removes it from the strap and takes off her heels just before she witnesses a krogan in full body armor with a Katana shot gun charge up the stairs, trampling some of the panicking patrons trying to run to the exit. The krogan is suddenly hit with a slightly flaming orange orb made of holo-glass and engulfed in flames. She turns to see Healion's Omni-tool active, knowing he just used Incinerate to burn the krogans armor she turns back just as quickly and shoots at his face, piercing his thick armor before Healion hits him with a second Incinerate. The krogan stumbles backwards and as a natural reaction dropped his Katana and reached for his burning face before falling backwards down the stairs.

Samantha could faintly hear sound of people being knocked back or crushed by the falling krogan over the music. She turned back to look for Sally. She found her using a piece of broken glass to cut her dress down the side to make it easier to maneuver in. Sam signaled for Sally to get ready as a group of armed batarians came to the top of the stairs. Samantha uses a biotic Throw on the group, tossing some over the siding, while the three that remained had biotic barriers around themselves making it only cause them to stumble a little, which prompted Sam to fire at the remaining batarians with her Carnifex. This disrupts their barriers just before they regain composure and prepare to fire. Sam activates her Tech Armor just before they fire but she notices one begin to charge his biotics before she rolls out the way.

"Now, Sally!" She yells once she is in cover. Sally stands and before the batarians pistol or shotgun cool down she hits the one at the edge of the steps charging his biotics with a biotic Charge. Samantha could hear his bones snap and crackle from the cover she was in as she sees a biotic Singularity open over the dance floor, drawing in some of the remaining patrons and hostiles from below into its swirl, killing some and injuring others. The remaining two batarians at the stairs try to turn and use their biotics to punch Sally but she unleashes a fierce biotic Nova, crushing them against the wall. Her barrier down, Sally barely rolls out of the way as more hostiles below open fire to the top of the stairs. Samantha tries to listen in to the group from below, but between the music and the still frantic crowd she couldn't place anything useful. She turns back to see that the twenty or so patrons who were at the bar and didn't try to run down the stairs had huddled into the corner by the DJ's table some were soldiers trying to shield the civilians, but all were staring at her hopefully. She sighs as she turns back to see Healion hopping over the bar, he now had a Tempest SMG in his hand.

"Hey we got three krogan at the bottom!" Sally yells from her cover next to the stairs, Samantha peeks around the cover just in time to see Sally use her biotics to pull the Katana the krogan dropped to herself.

"Got it," Sam yells back as she turns to Healion, "You got any military training?"

"Yes, I'm an ex-Union engineer, just retired at thirty last year." He answers quickly.

"Okay I'm gona switch places with Sally. You be ready to hit them with Incinerate as soon as you get a visual, I'll hit the one you burn the most with a Warp twice, first to take advantage of the Tech detonation, the second to prep them for biotic detonation, tell Sally when she gets over here to hit them with a Shockwave once she sees the second Warp." Sam orders Healion; she doesn't wait for a response from him as she turns over to face Sally and yells, "Bradshaw, move here!"

Without a word Sally maneuvers along the wall towards the bar, never letting her focus break from the stairs. As Sam goes around Sally and closes in to the stairs she can hear the pounding of heavy krogan feet climbing them. As the first krogan steps his foot onto the last step and his hulking body comes into view he is hit by the Incinerate, flames consume him and melt into his armor as he struggles to pat them out. Sam then follows the plan and strikes with her first Warp on the burning krogan, causing him to explode into an inferno of molten armor, ash, and a flash of fire. One of the other krogan on the stairs must have decided to go helmetless, because she could hear a pained shout as he undoubtedly had fire or ash splash into his face, burning his eyes.

"Grah, feel the blood rage!" she hears in a pained growl from around the corner.

She hears the sound of a heavy impact as a krogan body flies up the stairs, he lays there groaning and bleeding orange blood as a massive krogan in worn silver armor Sam recognized as battle master armor because of the large tubes jutting from the hump in the armor runs up the stairs, he has no helmet and his scaled face is charred on the non-plated part. The blind battle master is in a state of severe blood rage and Sam knows if she doesn't lure him from this cramped top floor the patrons in the corner will most likely be slaughtered regardless of what happens to her improvised squad.

"Come on big boy!" Sam says as she shoots a couple shots at the battle master, then puts her pistol away and goes down the stairs, the raging krogan right on her heels.

"What the hell are you doing Shepard?!" Sally yells after her.

Sam doesn't answer, she sees now that there is still a sizeable group of seven armed hostiles of many different species at the bottom of the stairs, a large group of bodies of the innocent patrons littered the floor, but even with the number dead there wasn't as many as there should have been especially noted by the fact that she couldn't identify a corpse in anything close to what Vicky had on when they got here. Sam activates her duel Omni-blades and runs forward. She was glad she had her Tech Armor on, because otherwise she would have doomed herself running down here bare-footed because of the broken glass littering some spots of the floor where she would have to run.

"Come on! Keep up you bastard!" she yells back at the krogan as she runs by the pair of turians closest to the stairs. She can hear them ready their weapons just before she hears the snapping of bone and the crushing of turian plate and muscle as they are crushed by the raging battle master. She dives forward as a human male and asari turn to fire upon her, slicing through their waist from in between where they stood next to one another.

Sam is coated in very little blood as she gets back into her pace, hearing the crunching of meat as the krogan continued to charge at her position blindly behind her. Three batarians prepare to fire on her with their Avengers in front of her, she dives to her left just before they open fire, causing some of their shots to hit the battle master, intensifying his blood rage. As he charges them they yell in terror and begin to fire on him, but the hulking battle master was too strong, their cheap Avengers overheated before they could riddle him with enough slugs to drop him and the krogan tore them to shreds once he got close enough.

Sam watched as the first batarian was hit so hard by the krogan's charge he was nearly tore open by the impact, bone forced through his armor and blood flying like he had been hit by a car. The next was caught in the face by a single hit of a flurry of swings by the wild battle master and his head spun so rapidly it tore itself right off his shoulders and landed a barely recognizable lump on the floor as the body toppled to the floor, lifeless. The last was grabbed as he began to run and with a frightened look in his four eyes, something rarely seen in batarians, the krogan opened his maw and took a large chuck of him from between the neck and left shoulder, swallowing it whole. The batarian struggled momentarily from the pain prompting the enraged krogan to slam the heavily bleeding batarian to the floor repeatedly, well beyond what was necessary to kill him. The krogan then stood and let out a fierce roar that nearly drowned out the music in the club, his silver armor now coated in orange, blue, and red blood of the six victims of his rampage mixed with some of his own.

Dispersing her Omni-blades, Samantha pulls her Carnifex back out and begins to fire on the krogan. The shots gain the attention of the still raging battle master, causing him to charge at her now. Sam stops firing as the battle master is almost upon her and attempts to roll out of the way, but she isn't fast enough. He impacts her legs and is sent spinning only a short distance from the krogan. She tries to move but the impact, while not as bad as it could have been thanks to both the Tech Armor and the fact she wasn't hit dead on, dislocated her left leg. She watches as the krogan turns and begins to run towards her, she closes her eyes and thinks back to the night where she just ran, how she failed to save Rebecka and abandoned Jason, she thought maybe this was payback for her cowardice. Samantha heard the music stop, and the sudden lack of the beat made her open her eyes, the krogan is froze in place and is slowly lifted off the ground as a pair of asari move followed by Sally moved into view in front of her.

"Ok, is everyone ready?" Sally asks as a small group of the patrons from upstairs come carrying the weapons they picked up from the dead hostiles from everywhere between the pair of turians back as more move to grab the weapons from the others. They all aim their weapons at the struggling krogan and open fire, some appear to know what they are doing and are able to continue undeterred while some obviously know little to nothing about their weapons and have to stop regularly to re-adjust themselves or their weapons to shoot better. The krogan roars in pain as he is riddled with slugs as the twenty or so patrons fire on him, he quickly begins to leak orange blood and soon after stops moving, the trained patrons stop but some of the untrained ones needed to be stopped by their neighbors because of the fact obvious to Sam this was their first time using a gun let alone killing someone. The Sally and the two asari let the krogan's corpse drop to the floor and as soon as it hits the floor the group cheers as Healion moves over to Sam. Checking her he finds a gash and after yanking her leg back into place, causing her to grit her teeth, he administers Medi-Gel to it. He then helps her to her feet as she is surrounded by the patrons cheering for her. She smiles for a moment until she thinks back on the missing patrons, and can faintly hear gunfire outside. She quiets the group and moves around them to the door.

"You all wait here." She says back to the group as she goes down the hallway to the exit, she opens the door out and sees the streets littered with as much chaos as it was bodies, many different armored hostiles killing and capturing civilians everywhere and burning buildings. Sally and Healion come to the door and find Samantha staring sternly into the red evening sky; they follow her gaze to see an armada of ships hovering over Illyria.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Sally, Healion, and Vicky are mine along with any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point until I say so. (Sorry I suck at this disclaimer, I just do suck at it)

**CE 2176…1800 hours…February 9…Illyria, Elysium**

"What should we do Sam?" Sally asks Samantha as she looks over at Healion, who is using his Omni-tool to lock down the entrance, adding in software to make it harder to hack into and alert the room of when there are intruders trying to get through.

Sam thinks for a moment. "We need to find out what is going on, check around with the patrons, see if any of them is an off duty communications officer and a good hacker in the crowd, I'm going to interrogate that krogan the battle master injured."

"Ok, but why do we need a hacker?" Sally asks as they walk down the hall back into the club.

"Other than the fact that if there isn't a comms officer they can hack enemy communications to find out what's up if the krogan doesn't cooperate, you mean? They can get me some maps of the city; find me something to bust up some of the ships up there." Sam says pointing up referencing the armada looming over them. "Is he even awake yet?"

"Last I checked no and he's been pretty quiet since then so he might still be out." Sally says flatly.

"Then I'm gona have to wake a hurt krogan, that's great." Sam says sarcastically

Sam makes her way through the group of people gathered on the bottom floor, some thanking her for saving them as she passed, others mourning a friend or family member they find dead in the piles of bodies. Making her way upstairs she finds the krogan, Omni-cuffs around his feet and hands. He was wheezing a little from the slightly damaged helmet, the Incinerate detonation had melted the nose holes shut meaning he was barely surviving with a low tank of oxygen. He was slightly smaller than a full grown krogan was, making Sam hopeful that he was a rookie so that this interrogation would be simple. It's slightly aged blue armor suggested otherwise, but she noticed the insignia of a small group of pirates call the Jaggers who called the system home.

"So…You awake little fella?" she asks as she approaches the krogan.

The krogan turns its helmeted head to Samantha, "I'm not a man you twit." The krogan says in a husky feminine voice.

Samantha resists the urge to jump back in surprise at the news, "Oh, that's odd, what's a female krogan doing off Tuchanka?" Sam asked moving closer again

"None of your business." She states bluntly.

"Ok, I'll respect that, that's not important to me now, what is important to me is what's going on out there now." Sam says.

"How is that important to me?" She asks sarcastically.

Samantha begins to lose her temper but she hears the very faint sound of a grate being removed behind her, though followed by the sound of feet landing softly on the bar, then the floor, then finally the slick sound of a blade being pulled from a sheath. Sam turns just in time, activating her right Omni-blade as she turns, and blocks a dagger strike from a male quarian in a forest green, formfitting suit, his glass visor tinted a dark shade of indigo. She grabs his arm, forces him to the wall, and pulls the arm behind his back, twisting it to force him to drop the dagger.

"Owww!" he whines, his voice sounding like that of an early twenty year old, "That hurts you stupid bitch!"

"Call me that again and I'm going to do a lot more than hurt you she says as she stabs her Omni-blade into the wall. She hears the sound of footfalls coming from the staircase; some of the others must have heard the ruckus and come to check on her.

"No, please," The krogan woman pleads, "don't hurt him."

"Why do you care, last I checked, the Jaggers were mostly krogan and batarian, with a little supplement from asari, since when do they let in anyone else, especially quarians?"

"Because…" the krogan stops, as if unable to finish the sentence. Sam recognized the reaction all too well as either familial or romantic attraction that tough people have a hard time expressing, causing her to sigh at the similarity between them.

"Miss Shepard, are you alright, where did he come from?!" Sam turns to see one of the two asari from earlier accompanied by a turian with black face paint and Sally.

"He came through the vents," She disperses her Omni-blade, "we'll need another pair of cuffs, what do you guys need?"

Sally steps forward, "This is your comms officer," pointing back at the turian with her thumb, "and your hacker." as she switches to point at the asari.

"Ok, leave those two and go grab a pair of cuffs from Healion, please." Sam tells Sally.

Sally nods and heads back down the stairs.

"So, before we get down to business, where did you two learn your skills, I need to know if both of you are reliable.

"Yes Ma'am," the turian says as he moves into a saluting stance, an inborn focus in his icy blue eyes, "Lieutenant Agaric Denarius, comms officer of the first platoon of the Aragon, this is my ninth tour serving Ma'am.

"At ease Lieutenant." Sam says to which the turian adheres and relaxes, "What about you miss?"

"My name is Nula D'noark, Miss Shepard. I got my training in the commandos. My unit was used for espionage and assassination mostly, and I had a particular talent for hacking into enemy installations, so once I retired from them last century I kept it up, opened a tech shop on the Citadel, and came here for a vacation with my friend who was visiting her sister who has a bondmate here."

"Ok, so…"Sam begins until she sees Sally round the corner with the cuffs. Sally tosses the cuffs to her and as she begins cuffing the quarian she continues. "Miss D'noark, I want you to hack into the public and secure files of the city using any of the undamaged extranet consoles in here and get me all the data you can, Maps of the city, any local bunkers we can move everyone here and other survivors to, and get me blueprints of the master control building of the defense turrets for the colony"

"Yes Ma'am." Nula nods as she makes her way back down the stairs. Sam motions for Agaric to follow as she leads the quarian over to where the krogan sat.

"Lieutenant Denarius, I want two battlefield communication backpacks, four if you can manage, a beacon that can get the Alliance to send back up, and a jammer that can cover a block or so just in case the enemy gets suspicious. Now I know that we don't have proper equipment here so for the moment I want you to focus most on the jammer and beacon. Melt down what you can into Omni-gel and jury rig what you can, get Healion to help once he's finished with the door."

"Yes, Ma'am, but "jury-rigging" a beacon is impossible; without an Alliance IFF and secure frequency algorithms it will be useless. I could make a burst message beacon but that could alert one of the ships of what we're doing and they might fire on us to stop it." He says worriedly.

"Hmmm," Sam places her chin in her and as she thinks for a moment, "if the maps show any signs of a Comms Tower or we find an Alliance comms officer nearby on the way to the bunker if there is one we'll finish it, so find a backpack and put the supplies for the beacon in it. For the moment just find what you can use and at least make the jammer just in case there is an emergency and we need it."

He salutes her once more before heading back towards the main floor. Sam turns back to the prisoners.

"Ok, I'm going to ask again, what is going on out there?" she asks

"We don't have to tell you anything you stupid bosh'tet!" the young quarian yells at her from behind his protective mask.

Samantha walks up and crouches next to him before saying, low and threatening, "I don't know what the hell a bosh'tet is but I'm pretty sure that it's something that is going to make me want kick your ass."

"Whatever you stupid…"

"Stop it Emil." The she-krogan says, stopping the rude quarian mid-sentence, she then turns to Sam, "As you guessed, I'm in the Jaggers; I joined them a while back. Emil isn't one of them, so he doesn't know anything, so if you let him go I'll tell you everything I know."

"What's to stop him from trying to kill me when I let him out?" Sam asks.

The krogan turns back to Emil, "Emil, if she lets you go you have to promise me you won't cause any trouble with anyone here." She says sternly.

"But…" he says in a disapproving tone.

"Emil'Koris." She says curtly.

Emil sighs, "I promise."

Sam uses her Omni-tool to remove the cuffs from Emil and points to the bar, "You can sit there, as long as you don't interrupt while I'm talking to her."

Sam could see his luminous white eyes soften slightly from behind his blue glass visor, "Thanks, I guess." He says lowly.

Emil begins to pick up his dagger but Sam places her foot on it, he smacks his lips under his helmet before heading to his seat. Sam picks up the dagger and fiddles with it as she says, "Ok, so, miss…"

"Sakkara, used to be Gatatog Sakkara, until like an idiot I helped a turian that was passing our camp on Tuchanka causing everyone to shun me, I left three centuries ago when I was still too young to be determined fertile or not and after I proved myself to some small pirate bands who used to live in the Terminus systems I became the leader of my own pirate band. After fighting every day for a meal for two centuries I decided to leave and headed out here. I was passing by three years ago when the Jaggers were about to execute Emil. I stopped them all. Their boss, that battle master that hit me, came out of nowhere and grabbed Emil.

He must have been impressed I beat a group of his best guys with nothing but biotics so he gave me a choice, either join his gang and he'd let Emil live, or don't and we both die. I could have taken him, but I didn't want my random act of kindness to be a waste of effort, so I took the obvious path and he let me keep Emil around, who for some reason wouldn't leave even when I said he could. That leads up to now, Emil found out that the reason this is going down is the Batarian Hegemony funded as many pirates and criminals they could find in the Attican Traverse and the Terminus systems that would be willing to hit Elysium."

"So the batarians are behind this, makes sense, they've wanted humanity gone since we got here." Sam says as she begins to pace thinking, "If this is as big as you're saying we'll need all the help we can find, are you two willing to help?"

"Wha…N…" Emil begins until he is interrupted by Sakkara.

"Of course we will, I didn't want to do this from the start, but that bastard would have none of it, I'm willing to help you guys, and I'll make Emil help too."

"So it's settled," Sam moves over and uses her Omni-Tool to remove the cuffs from Sakkara's hands and legs.

Sakkara stands up, a full six or so inches over the 5'8'' commander, and removes her helmet, revealing a scatter of thick scales where the plate on a male krogan would be which faded from a dark forest green in the front to a dark bark brown as they headed back. Her eyes were a very dim, almost black blue with the tell-tale cat's eye pupils all krogan had. Sam turns and tosses Emil back his dagger, which he places back in the sheath in his boot.

"You two stay up here until I get back from telling everyone downstairs the deal, and once we get what we can we're gona start making a plan of attack. Thanks for choosing to help us." Samantha says as reaches a hand out to Sakkara.

"Sure Shepard." She says returning the handshake.

Sam heads down the stairs, ready to prepare for anything in the next couple of hours.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Sally, Vicky, Healion, Emil, Sakkara, Nula, and Agaric are mine and any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point unless I say so.

**CE 2176…2100 hours…February 9…Illyria, Elysium**

"There, finished." Agaric said as he pulls his Omni-tool back from a metal backpack looking object on one of the only tables left on the bottom floor of the club, sliding it over to three identical packs also on the table.

"Yes! Great job Lieutenant Denarius!" Sam pats the turian on his back causing a momentary look of pride as he flexes his mandibles before his stoic composure returns and he thanks the commander for her compliment. She turns and walks to the only other table which was moved to the middle of the room, sitting next to it is the twenty foot tall pylon that is the jammer that Agaric and Healion worked together to build using various electronics in the room for the circuits, and several chairs and tables for the foundation and body of the device, using Omni-Gel made from the damaged armor of the dead krogan battle master to hold it together.

"Okay everyone, form up on me!" Sam yells to the group of people scattered through the room.

After everyone is gathered she calls Nula to the table along with Sally, Agaric, Healion, Sakkara, and Emil to the table itself and the other soldiers in the crowd to gather behind. Some in the crowd were still a little wary of Sakkara, though now it was mostly because of her blunt personality rather than because she assaulted the place thanks to Emil, who the group had warmed up to, spoke well of her before he had the idea to crawl through the vents to the roof to do recon up until a half hour ago.

"Ok guys, this is what I got, Nula, bring up the map." Sam says.

Nula uses her Omni-tool to activate a holographic map of the whole city that covers the table.

"Now the three places we need to go are all in different directions, there is a bunker I want to get all civilians in down this road here," Sam points and the map quickly zooms in to the bunker, "it is ten clicks away from where we are now, that is too risky a walk fifteen civilians that far but according to Emil's intel, there are some enemy Mako Tanks in a garage a click towards that direction." She waves her hand over the map and it moves down the street to the garage, "If we send a small squad to take them and bring them here we can load up the civilians and get them to the bunker, who here knows how to operate a Mako?"

Two humans in the group of soldiers raise their hands, "We know how Commander." They say in unison

"Good, let's see…" Sam looks at the group around the table, "Sally, Healion, you two are going with them. We need those Mako's but I don't want to lose anyone so if you can't take them fall back."

"From what I could see they should be fine, especially since Sally has that armor from that dead asari fixed up, though I still think you should have taken it Shepard." Emil says.

"Yes, I added another layer of protective armor to it as well, we will be fine Shepard." Healion adds quickly.

Sam nods, "Good thinking Healion, and I don't need it as much as Sally does, I can make my own so having another layer is kind of redundant and since she is a Vanguard she needs the extra cover more than I do."

Sam waves her hand over the map once more, pulling it to Xenosis before she lifts her hand to zoom it out slightly, "Now that is west into the city, so you guys are going right once we leave. You," she says pointing to a turian with red face paint who had a Mantis he found on one of the batarians Sam had thrown over the side of the railing earlier, "You are going with Nula and Agaric to the Comms Tower in the south, We need to contact the Alliance, otherwise these criminals are going to overrun us eventually."

"Yes Ma'am, Commander." He says as he salutes.

"Lastly, we have the defense turrets, Sakkara and Emil; you're with me on that, it's five clicks away so prepare for a long walk."

Sakkara cocks her Claymore, "Got it Shepard."

"Yes, time to go pop some heads." Emil says as he pulls out his Viper sniper rifle.

"Ok then, you two," Sam says pointing at the only two soldiers left, a human and a salarian, the human with a rocket launcher he found in his hands, the Salarian, a Predator in his hand and an Avenger on his back, "I need you to stay here, don't let anything get through that door once everyone leaves unless we radio back, Agaric did give one of you a quick rundown on how to use the comms unit?"

"Yes, Commander." The salarian answers.

"Good, Now I know this is going to be dangerous, but we can't give up, no matter what. There is never a guarantee about these things but I'm going to push on. I'm going to fight till there is nothing left of me to save this colony, and I hope you all are ready to do the same." Sam says proudly to the group.

Everyone in the room, including the civilians, salute her as she makes her way to the other table, Sakkara and Emil close behind. She picks up and tosses Emil one of the four comm packs and then activates her Tech Armor before heading towards the door. They are tailed by all the other teams as they go down the corridor to the entrance. Once there Sam turns back to Healion, who pulls up his Omni-tool and, after pressing some of the holographic buttons, the red door control turns green. Sam touches the door control and the door slides open down the middle. The red sky was now replaced by an eerie yellow orange as twilight drew near. The light colored the streets and the bodies on them with a somewhat supernatural hue that sent a short chill down Samantha's spine. The teams then split up and head down their respective streets.

_Author's note: First I am sorry I haven't posted a chapter in a chapter in a while for the people that like reading this, I actually have up to twelve chapters done but my internet has been on the fritz so I couldn't keep the internet up long enough to post anything. Second I want to let everyone who is looking forward to the actual crossovers I'm going to do them in in the years between the end of ME1 & 2 so I have a while yet to get to them, and I got stuck on chapter thirteen up until when I am posting this so I have a way to go, sorry. I hope you'll keep reading anyway and I'll get as far as I can before I hit another rut so that you'll have something to read until then._


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Sally, Vicky, Healion, Emil, Sakkara, Nula, and Agaric are mine and any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point unless I say so in the description.

**CE 2176…2300 hours…February 9…Illyria, Elysium**

"Ha-ha!" Sakkara yells as she throws a biotic Singularity into a group of enemies ahead of them behind some parked cars up the street, bodies tangling with or impacting either each other or debris with deadly force as it expands consuming even more as it does until Samantha uses a biotic Warp on it, causing an explosion of dark energy that rips some bodies into pieces while it simply disintegrates others and damaging the streetlight next to the explosion causing the misting blood and gore to disappear as if a vid had just been turned off. Samantha uses her Overload to rip the shields off a batarian she sees at the next streetlight. His head is then riddled with a quick succession of slugs from Emil's Viper from his position well behind where Sakkara and Sam stood in the fray.

The building housing the defense turrets control was in sight, but it appeared heavily fortified, worse so was there apparently was a fight in a weapons shop between them and the control building as well. Sam could also see the lights of shuttles landing and taking off at the base, heading up towards the ships above them sending a chill up her spine as she had a momentary flashback. There was a loud bang as the shell from an anti-tank rifle round barely misses Sam's right arm and shatters the ground behind her.

"Find cover!" Sam yells as she runs to an ally to her left just before another shot from the rifle is fired.

She turns to see Sakkara at the opposite ally but doesn't see any sign of Emil; she activates her short range comm in her Omni-tool and contacts Sakkara, "Hey, Sakkara, do you got a visual on Emil?"

"He's behind that parked cab on the curb next to you." Sakkara answers bluntly.

Sam quickly contacts Emil and asks, "Emil, are you close enough to get a shot or hack his gun?"

"No, it's too far off." He answers.

"Perhaps we could be of some assistance." An extremely cow boyish voice says over their comm.

"Who is this?" Sam asks.

"Corporal Marcus Stacker ma'am, and I assume this is Commander Shepard, we heard over the horn that you and your group you gathered at Xenosis were makin pushes all over the city, getting everyone organized, saving people all over the city, even got a message to the Alliance brass at Arcturus. We'd like to help but we're cornered up the street, one of those batarian SOB's has a Grenade Launcher and we can't get a clear shot on him."

"Don't worry Corporal; we'll get you and your men out. Emil, can you get a shot on that batarian?" Sam asks.

"No." he says bluntly.

"Damn, what about you Sakkara?"

She is silent for a moment before she says, "I got him but he's a biotic, I can't hit him from here with a shotgun and until his barrier's down my biotics won't work. Those guys are in a damn weapon shop, can't they find a grenade or something to help us help them out."

"All you had to do was ask ma'am." Stacker says over the comm. There is a sudden cry from the batarians as they scramble over cover, but the biotic one isn't fast enough and the splash from the explosive disrupts his barrier. Immediately after the explosion Sakkara looks around the corner of the ally and uses a biotic Pull on the batarian. He helplessly screams as he begins to float higher and higher into the air, and is riddled with slugs from Emil's Viper before he suddenly falls to the ground a short distance from Sam, Launcher still in hand.

"Thanks miss Sakkara." Stacker says over the radio

Heavy gunfire begins to echo and the batarians at the weapon shop run towards the control tower. Sam peeks around the corner and sees a man come out of the shop, something large in his hands, and run to cover behind a truck landed up the street.

"Here's your help Commander." Stacker says as the silhouette of the man leans around the front of the truck and a red light appears on the front. Suddenly there is a white light that shoots from the red just before the balcony of the sniper is engulfed in a miniature mushroom cloud inferno.

Sam deactivates her Tech Armor and begins to move up, picking up the grenade launcher before she is followed by Emil with Sakkara taking up the rear as they approach the man by the truck as he is also approached by ten more men from the shop.

"That was some good work if I do say so myself." Stacker says his back to Sam and the others; she could see his slightly grey hair under his military cap. The Alliance soldiers that surrounded him had mixed looks on their faces as they saw Samantha's team approach. Some looked warily at Sakkara, but most were too preoccupied eyeing up Samantha, who was still in her tight leather skirt.

"What are you idiots gawking at?" He says turning to face Sam, "Damn Commander, I don't like protocol any more than the next guy but aren't you over doing it?" he jokes.

"Yeah, I thought if I was going to make history defending this place I may as well look good while I do it." She laughs.

"Yeah, well don't you cover your bases, anyway thanks for the help." He says putting his hand forward.

"Any time." Sam replies, shaking his hand.

"And you must be Sakkara, I'd ask why a female krogan is off Tuchanka, but I'll just settle for thanking you right now and you can tell me that bedtime story later." He jokes offering Sakkara a handshake as well which she accepts.

"So can you boys offer us assistance for our mission?" Sam asks.

"Sure Shepard, my guys are a little banged up but I can guarantee they're the most reliable bunch on Elysium, and having a good arsenal from the shop doesn't hurt much either."

"Yeah, and you still haven't paid for that." A new man who looks very similar to Corporal Stacker says as he leaves the shop carrying a Phaeston assault rifle.

"Aw, shut it Bucky, you know I'm good for it but we have more pressing concerns at the moment!" Stacker yells at the man, "Commander I'd like you to meet my brother Buck Stacker."

"Hello Mr. Stacker." Sam says to the man.

"Now you don't have to go calling me Mr. Stacker," He begins to get an odd look on his face, "you can just call me Bucky, Mr. Stacker was our father, I must say though you seem pretty familiar."

Samantha begins to answer but is interrupted by the Corporal "Bucky, stop tryin to flirt with the girl, aint no girl her age gona go for your cheesy pickup lines anyway."

Buck growls and begins to mumble under his breath as he heads back into his shop.

"Is he going to be alright?" Emil asks.

"Yeah he'll be fine kid, don't worry about that old coot. Besides like I said, we got more important things to worry about."

"Agreed," Sam says, "we need to get into that building to get the colonies defenses online, but from what I can tell about those shuttles and the fact that they didn't kill everyone back at Xenosis, they probably have prisoners they plan to sell into slavery. Can you guys come and protect them after we free them and organize a Mako pickup, freeing us up to assault the control building right then?"

"That shouldn't be a problem Commander. So when do we move?" he inquires.

"We need to go right now if you are ready." Sam answers.

The Corporal nods and signals for his guys to move as they all begin to walk around the truck. Sam reactivates her Tech Armor about halfway to the building when she could start to make out the orange lights of cage walls behind landed shuttles. She could see a figure running towards them in the dark and pulled up her Carnifex, the others following suit.

"Don't shoot please!" a familiar voice screams to them.

Sam quickly lowers her gun, "Vicky, is that you?"

The figure makes it to the light of the streetlight they were under revealing that it was indeed Vicky, as she drew closer Sam could see that her green skirt was torn badly, barely covering her curvaceous form, her thigh high boots were gone, and she was bruised badly all over and bleeding slightly in some places.

"Sam!" She weeps as she grapples Sam in a large hug but immediately falls back, "Sam, we…we gotta go back! We gotta go back and help him!" She says frantically.

"Wait calm down, Vicky, help who?" Sam asks.

"There's no time, they caught him again, they might just kill him this time, and we gotta help him!"

Sam is gripped hard around the wrist by Vicky as she begins to pull her back towards the camp for a moment before she lets go and runs ahead of her.

"Vicky wait!" Sam yells, which catches the attention of the guards in the camp. Twenty batarians come from around the shuttles next to her and turn to face her but before the one closes to her can fire Sakkara comes out of nowhere and slams his head into the shuttle wall, crushing his skull as Emil and the Alliance soldiers open fire on the rest.

"Catch up with her Shepard, we can handle this." Sakkara says stoically before she turns to the batarian next to her and blasts him with her claymore. Sam nods to Sakkara's back and moves between the shuttles looking for Vicky. She goes to turn the corner but almost runs into a large crate with glowing orange walls with injured people inside who begin yelling for her to get them and she assures them she will return as she goes around it. She finds many more occupied cages before she finally spots Vicky who she finds running towards a pair of batarians who are about to execute a turian, one holding him to his knees, the other has a Carnifex aimed at the back of his head, the barrel just under the turians fringe.

"No!" Vicky yells surprising the batarians, the turian struggles out of their grasp and begins to run towards Vicky and Sam's direction until the batarian with the gun shoots him in the back. As the turian collapses Sam shoots one in the head with her pistol and throws a Warp at the other, following it up with a Throw detonating the Warp, but not before he fired a shot at Vicky, which hits her in her foot as she is running to the turian causing her to fall as well.

Sam runs over to Vicky, who has crawled the remaining way to the turian and has him in her arms. As Sam draws closer she can see he is breathing heavily but is still alive, the hole of the bullet had pierced its way through his plate rather than use kinetic force to damage as a puddle of blue blood begins to form under her feet.

"What are you waiting for?! Give him some Medi-Gel!" Vicky yells at Sam.

Sam quickly applies the Medi-Gel closing up the wound and the puddle stops its advance.

"He needs to get to a medic within twelve hours but if he does he'll make it." Sam says seriously.

Vicky's rapid breathing slows slightly as she holds the injured turian. Turning to the sound of footsteps Samantha finds Sakkara, Emil and the others approaching her.

"So we saved your friends friend, now what?" Sakkara asks.

"Now we start freeing captives, then after we see off Corporal Stacker we assault the control building." Sam answers

Sakkara nods and moves her head, signaling Emil to begin opening cages as Sam and one of Stackers soldiers begin to do the same.

"Sakkara, Corporal Stacker, you and the others go cover the door to the building, we may not be long but we don't need any distractions." Sam orders.

"Roger that Commander Shepard." Stacker says as he scratches his beard out of discomfort of the sights around them.

Sam hadn't noticed how bad it was when she rushed through, some of the prisoners were experiencing spasms in their cages. From the reports of Mindoir she figured the spasms were most likely a result of incorrectly placed control chips the batarians undoubtedly placed in them, as she opened one of the cages and after sedating one such captive she saw a bloody gash crudely sown together on the back of the poor girls neck she knew she was right. Sam could hear a firefight happening in the distance towards the entrance of the control building.

"Looks like you made the right call Shepard." Emil says as he helps his cages captives out and then moves to the next one. Sam takes the injured girl and sits her on a cot inside the shuttle closest to her, seeing that Stackers soldier is still on his first cage as if he is having a little trouble with it.

She moves over towards him as she whispers to herself "*sigh* This is turning out to be a really long night."

_Authors note: Marcus Stacker's name, voice and mannerisms are a reference of the character of the same name from the Halo series, though the character himself isn't the same guy so there is no Halo in this fic. _


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Buck Stacker, Sally, Vicky, Healion, Emil, Sakkara, Nula, and Agaric are mine and any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point unless I say so in the Authors note.

**CE 2176…0100 hours…February 10…Illyria, Elysium**

Samantha turned to the crowd of fifty able bodied people who had been freed from their cages, helping the last captive over to their position. Some hurry over and help him off her shoulder and into one of the shuttles, though it was more for comfort for the man than anything. They had run out of Medi-Gel half an hour ago and ten of the forty injured were having to go without any treatment. Sam begins to make her way to Corporal Stacker and Sakkara to see if Emil is there but sees him walk out from the crowd to the right.

She stops him, "Emil, I want you to contact Healion, tell him we need a pickup at the control building."

"On it Shepard." He says stopping as he uses his Omni-tool to access the long distance communication device on his back and begins haling Healion.

Sam continues on to the buildings entrance. It is quiet at the moment; the momentary skirmishes that take place there usually don't last very long, usually with Sakkara yelling something as she landed the final kill in the raid. The ship above to which the batarians were a crew of had long since abandoned the men inside, their two only attempts foiled by the weapon that Stacker used to kill the sniper earlier, decimating the ships and causing them to crash land well beyond where any survivors could pose a threat, though she doubted there were any. She approached the front door of the building, Corporal Stacker and two of his men were standing to the sides of it.

"Where's Sakkara?" she asks them.

"Left five minutes ago, Miss Sakkara said to tell you she was getting tired of waiting and since you were almost done she was getting a head start." Stacker answers

She sighs and rechecks the armor she got from one of the freed captives, who got it from a dead batarian female. It was had a large hole in the front, likely from one of Sakkara's shotgun shots, so she wore her dress under the armor making it uncomfortable, but the kinetic barriers still worked and she could supplement the hole with Tech Armor so it was good enough for her.

"Ok, I'm going in. Can you cover these civilians Corporal?"

"Sure Commander." He says clutching his Phaeston.

Sam turns to see Emil walking up to them. She could see the worried look in his shiny eyes from behind his visor get a worried look in them.

"She went on ahead without us, but I'm sure she's fine." She says comfortingly, "Come on, we gotta catch up."

His eyes soften as he draws his Viper and nods at her. She turns and enters the doorway, drawing her Carnifex as she steps in. It isn't long after entering that they find Sakkara crouched beside a strange corpse.

"What is that?" Emil asks.

Sakkara stands before saying, "Varren, there's quite a few in here, guess that was what they were planning on sending in the next wave."

"Why not before?" Emil asks

"Because they must not have them trained, the remaining guards must have let them loose as a defense stratagem. I guess there numbers are too low to fight us straight up anymore."

Suddenly the sound of Stacker comes in from over the comm, "Commander, you read?"

"Yes Corporal, go ahead."

"My brother just showed up in camp, says there's a large group of soldiers headed our way, regular army, and there's still no sign of our ride. I figure we should contact them, tell 'em what's up. I also figure that we could use you out here, things are gona get hairier out here than a sheepdog and we need all the firepower we can muster."

She begins a quick walk down the hall, seeing the elevator ahead, its door control red, turning to her left she sees the service stairs, "We'll go as fast as we can Stacker, but they cut the elevator off, we gotta use the stairs."

"We can hold down the fort till you get back Shepard, just don't trip on any bodies and you should be fine, it's only three stories. I'm movin the civilians inside…"

"Negative, there are Varren in the building, and we didn't clear the bottom floor, there may be more down there."

"Damn, there are Varren in there?! Why are we just now figuring this out?" he asks disturbed.

"No time," She turns to Emil and signals him to contact Healion again while her and Sakkara move up now that they were in the relative safety of the stair room, "close the door, we'll open it when we leave."

"Got it Commander, happy hunting."

They hit the top of the stairwell but the door is locked, Sam begins to attempt to hack it when Sakkara stops her. Sam turns to her, a slightly bewildered look on her face.

"This is faster." She pulls out a glob of Omni-gel and flicks it onto the wall, the doors control turns from red to green and it opens.

"Well…" Sam says as she walks through the now open door. There is an abrupt, low growl that echoes through the confined hallway. As she turns there stands three Varren, their black fishlike scales gleaming in the bright white neon lights of the building. The one closest to them makes a small roar and begins to charge them, followed immediately by the other two. Samantha begins to fire on them, able to drop the first one with her first three, but they were too close to continue to fire. She rolls back, barely dodging the pouncing beast, which is immediately obliterated by Sakkara's claymore. The third is hit by a tech fireball that originated behind the two, though Sam didn't bother to look back, knowing that it was Emil, and immediately pushed forward. They continue on, fighting plenty of Varren along the way until they finally made it to the entrance of the control room, finding the door control locked.

"I don't suppose you have any more Omni-gel handy Sakkara?" Sam asks.

"What I used was all that I had saved from back at Xenosis," Sakkara points at the grenade launcher on Sam's back, "you can always use that."

Sam had almost forgotten she had it; she pulls it out and the three step back from the door. She fires the first round, denting the door. She fires again; this time throwing the doors off their hinges, before the smoke can clear there is a wave of bullets that fly out that immediately eating off most of Samantha's Tech Armor before she gets out of the way. The firing continues for a moment until the smoke clears, Samantha and Sakkara are on one side of the doorway with Emil on the other. They wait in silence for a moment until a small disc shaped object flies out and lands between them.

"Grenade!" Emil yells as they run back to get out of the way. The explosion throws Emil and causes Sakkara to stumble and it disrupting her biotic barrier, Sam was the only one unaffected by the blast because of Sakkara being in the way. Sakkara drops to one knee, catching her breath, her fatigue from her biotic use was finally catching up to her. Sam checks on her and she waves a hand as if she is fine and just need to catch her breath. Sam looks around her to see Emil sitting on the floor holding the back of his left leg with one hand and using his Omni-tool with the other, so she moves to check and see what is wrong. She quickly gets by the doorway; the little gunfire that was shot missed and approaches Emil.

"You ok?" She asks

"No, my suit ruptured and the section seal is malfunctioning." He says worriedly

Samantha's heart dropped, his suit rupture could be fatal because of his weak quarian immune system.

"Can I help?!" she says worriedly. Suddenly there is the sound of a closing sound of metal and fabric.

"No, I got it, thanks for the concern, I'm probably going to get the sniffles and a fever but I'll be fine. Look out!" Sam turns quickly and fires her Carnifex on a batarian that was standing in the doorway turned towards Sakkara. He goes limp and falls but is soon replaced by five more. Her Carnifex overheated, she uses warp on one, his chest being ripped to shreds by the shifting biotic field, the blood erupting from his chest like a waterfall. Another two are decimated by a single shot from Sakkara's Claymore. The last begin to open fire when Sam makes a split second decision and dives into the remaining two and detonates what was left of her tech armor, disrupting their shields. Emil takes advantage of their dropped shields and lands headshots on both with his Viper, killing them. Sam quickly goes and checks the room carefully from the doorway finding no more batarians inside. She then enters the room and finds the control panel for the defense turrets and turns it on. She begins to calibrate the guns when she suddenly hears Stackers voice over her comm.

"Shepard they're almost here, are you almost done with those guns?!" He says hurriedly

She looks at Sakkara and Emil, knowing what she is about to ask of them at least one of them isn't going to like, "Emil, can you stay up here alone and calibrate these guns and let Sakkara come with me?"

There is a long pause, Emil's luminescent eyes holding a very serious look behind his visor.

"Commander, are you even still alive in there?!" a worried Stacker says over the comm.

"Fine Shepard, but only because I trust you to bring her back, and she better stay safe with you."

"Stop trying to coddle me Emil, I can take care of myself." Sakkara says bluntly

"Sorry Sakkara, I was just…" Emil starts

"I know, but don't worry so much."

Emil nods and moves to the console just as Sakkara and Sam move to leave, heading as quickly as they can outside.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Corporal Marcus Stacker's voice and name belong to Sally, Vicky, Healion, Emil, Sakkara, Nula, and Agaric are mine and any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point unless I say so in the description.

**CE 2176…0130 hours…February 10…Illyria, Elysium**

Samantha slices the last Varren between her and Sakkara and the exit of the turret control building to pieces with her Omni-blades. They quickly run to the exit, the last of the Varren dead.

"Someone open the door!" she yells over the comm.

The door slides open, Buck Stacker on the other side.

"Howdy Ma'am, my brothers at the frontline waiting for you," there is another mushroom explosion from the strange gun Corporal Stacker was using, "I told the fool until they develop a way to eject Thermal Clips from weapons he needed to slow down using that thing, it's bad enough it's a prototype but overuse could cause it to backfire."

"WHAT?!" Samantha gasps.

"That's why I'm calling it the Cain; it's just as liable to kill my brother as it is to kill these bastards. Maybe I'll take the Shadow Broker up on his offer and sell him the gun and blueprints once this is over…Hey where you goin Shepard, I was talkin!" but he was too late, Sam was already hurrying to the battlefield turning on her Tech Armor as she went.

As they approach she sees most of the captives hiding by what used to be their cages and the shuttles, their fearful faces brightening as she runs past. She sees that Stacker, his soldiers, and some of the captives who had taken up guns and were now fighting had moved some cages in front of the shuttles and were using them as cover, in the distance she could see what appeared to be at least a hundred, maybe two hundred pirates and criminals of many different species coming at them, a slightly disorganized horde of krogan, asari, human, turian, salarian, batarian, and varren rushing their position.

"They must have got wind of what you were doin, looks like most of the ground forces are headed here to try and get-got us." Stacker says to her as she slides into cover next to him, the Cain still in his hand.

"I want you to stop using that right now," She says sternly, "I don't need you going all supernova on us or whatever, only use it again if we have absolutely no other choice."

"Damn it, Bucky scared ya with his mess about this backfiring, didn't he, you know…"

"Don't make me take it from you Corporal." She says holding back her temper.

He sighs and switches the Cain in for his Phaeston, and then they turn and begin firing on all the hostiles they can hit. They all continue fighting for what seems like hours, one of Stackers soldiers is hit and isn't fast enough to return to cover before he is gunned down. The enemy continues to close in on them until they suddenly begin to scatter, plowing through the ones to slow to dodge or the ones not paying attention were five Mako tanks. The tanks park in front of the cage barricade and their backs open as the cannons turn and begin to fire on the by now definitely only one hundred hostiles, from the one in front of them come Sally, Healion, Nula, and Agaric, all fully armored with scavenged equipment. From the others are soldiers and brave civilians willing to fight.

"What are all of you doing here?! We'd only need two Makos for a pickup, and I didn't even expect you to come at all." Sam says astonished as they move into cover.

"Colonist from Xenosis spread the tale of you and the krogan; also many heard how you organized us and helped civilians on your way here leaving no one behind. Colonist and soldiers not willing to abandon their hero, and neither are we." Healion says so rapidly Sam almost didn't understand him.

"Ok, so let's show these guys whose boss." Sakkara says behind Sam.

"Damn straight, you comin Sakkara?" Sally says.

"You were planning on leaving me out of the fight?" She asks with a laugh as they stand, the vibrations from the Mako's cannons vibrating the ground under their feet and run into the fray.

"Stop! Damn it," Sam yells after the two before she turns to Stacker and says, "do not use that thing, we've got backup now and the risk for friendly fire is high. Agaric, Nula, you're with me."

Nula and Agaric immediately hop to their feet and follow Sam as she moves into to fight. She puts her Carnifex in her left hand as she activates her Omni-blade in her right. She sees Sally and Sakkara charge headlong into a group of batarians and turians, Sam moves to catch up with them but is intercepted by some humans, she back rolls, just dodging a biotic bunch from one of them, the group are assaulted by a hail of slugs from Nula and Agaric, keeping them from shooting Sam, they begin to run for cover but aren't fast enough as Nula hits them with a Cryo blast, freezing them in place. Sam hits one with a Warp, while Agaric hits the other with Incinerate, causing a dual biotic and Cryo detonation explosions, some of it splashing to a group of asari next to them which caused the ones who weren't hit to turn their attention to them just before they were obliterated by a blast from a Mako, violet blood misting as parts of their bodies flew from the impact. Sam saw as a missile came from the back ranks of the rapidly decreasing numbers of the criminals and hit a Mako, destroying it. Two more came from the same general direction but missed their targets.

"We have to stop those missiles!" Nula yells to Sam.

"We need to cut through, Agaric, you got a turret?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, it's kind of junky because it's made from scrap but I built it to shoot rockets so it should help us bunch through."

He pulls out a small, odd shaped hunk of metal and throws it in the midst of a mixed group of criminals. They turn in surprise as the turret activates and blasts some of them into bits before they can react. The others begin to shoot at it but without slowing down from their run Agaric activates his Omni-tool and uses it to deploy a Combat drone, the little holo-glass orb shocking the hostiles with a large arch of lightning that spread from one criminal to the next.

"Great thinking Lieutenant!" Sam yells back as her and Nula fire on the few remaining enemies, finishing them off, but two more platoons block their way, "You two take the ones on the right!"

"You sure you can handle a platoon Shepard?!" Agaric yells

"Yeah, just go!"

In truth she wasn't sure, but her pumping adrenaline was making her more confident than maybe she should have been. She charges the group, a hodge-podge of salarian, asari, and human soldiers. She uses Throw, flinging all but the five asari to the ground, she could feel the fatigue from exertion of throwing forty-five people to the ground but she powered through it. Pulling out the grenade launcher after putting away her pistol, she opens fire relentlessly. One of the asari flings a Warp at her, ripping off her barriers but it was too late, she had reduced the whole platoon to a large pile of chard and mangled flesh and blood. Breathing heavily she checks the ammo in the launcher, which now only has one shot left, before turning to the second platoon. Between the turret, the drone, and the two soldiers the other platoon was also in shambles. Sam signals for them to move once she moves to them and they finally reach the back line to find three krogan warlords holding the rocket launchers.

"Damn!" Nula yells as she rolls out of the way of a rocket. Her blue form a blur from the speed of her dodge. Sam charges the closest warlord firing her Carnifex until it jams, the heat of the constant overheats earlier in the day finally rendering the gun useless. She throws it to the side and activates her left hands Omni-blade. The krogan accepts her advance as a challenge and throws his launcher to the ground.

"You got a quad human!" he yells over the fierce noises of the battlefield as he charges.

They rapidly close the distance between each other, the warlord drawing a dagger from a sheath on his hump and the two engage in a fierce duel. Nula and Agaric begin to move to assist Sam but are blocked by the other two warlords.

"Looks like you are alone now human," he says an hour later as they trade blows, neither giving an inch, "my brood-brothers are keeping your allies from making this a fair fight, you should give up now."

"You should have given up from the start, my brother took down a krogan before, and I watched and learned how he fought." She dodges a stab from his dagger, and grabbing his arm she uses it to flip up onto his large hump, holding on to his head plate as he struggles to shake her off. One of the other warlords turns and begins to fire on them, but barely any damage is done to her Tech Armor before Sakkara comes out of nowhere and supplementing herself with her biotics, tackles him and begins pounding him in the face. The third warlord is suddenly hit by a biotic charge and is ganged up on by Sally, Agaric, and Nula. The warlord she is on barely even notices.

Suddenly she can hear the sound of the giant turrets around the settlement turn. She is hyped up as an anti-ship missile shoots down one of the ships on the outskirts of the colony and they continue to fire on ships all around and above the colony. Her already high adrenaline now pumping at full throttle, knowing that the battle was almost over and all she had to do was one little push. "Stop moving!" she screams as she pulls out the grenade launcher, "It's over!" using her biotics, she forces its barrel straight through the plate on the warlords head and pulls the trigger. The explosion throws her off the krogan, rips through her Tech Armor and disrupts the kinetic barriers in the armor, as she hits the ground she hears her shoulder pop just before her head hits the ground hard and she falls unconscious.

**CE 2176…0500 hours…February 10…Illyria, Elysium**

Samantha eyes shoot open. She tries to move but her whole body is in pain, making it difficult to move. She continues to lift herself through the pain until she is gently pushed back down by a three fingered hand.

"Get back down Shepard, you're no krogan, but you tried to fight like one and while I respect it, that was pretty stupid of you to do." She hears the familiar voice of Sakkara.

"Here, let me get the bed for you." She hears Emil say, and after a moment the head of her bed lifts her to see the room. Apparently a hospital, though it was slightly damaged from the invasion. In the room are the familiar faces of Healion, Sally, Nula, and Agaric.

"How long was I out, and where are Vicky and Corporal Stacker?" Sam asks.

"You have been unconscious for three and a half hours." Healion says quickly

"Ok, and what about Vicky and Stacker?" she asks again

"Vicky's down the hall, and Stacker went to the Kilimanjaro, after you were able to hold the defense control building and the turrets came online the pirates became very disorganized as they tried to ditch the colony, though by the time the ones that got away from us got back to their ships thirty minutes ago the Alliance showed up and started to pound what was left of the fleet both here and in orbit. The last of the cleanup is underway now, and since you were the one who saved this place and pretty much everybody agrees with me I think you need to get up and get into that so you can be presentable when the Alliance comes to pick you up." Sally says as she points to Samantha's N7 Onyx armor sitting in the corner, "That is after we let the last of your medicine kick in and your pain dies down, I suggest you wear your helmet though, that ground gave you one hell of a lump on your head."

How'd you find it? I always hide my armor when not on a ship." Sam asks.

"Got it out of your hotel room in a cut out section in the frame of the bed, along with this, it's all you had left after looters got in the place, why do you keep this old thing hid with your armor?"

She pulls out a slightly scratched, rugged old IPod from her pocket. Sam reaches out and takes it without answering the question before reaching up and feeling the bump on her head cringing as she touches it.

"How long do I have to get ready?" Sam asks.

"If it was the turian military another thirty minutes tops, meaning maybe forty five to an hour." Agaric answers

"But we can stall your pick up if you need us to Shepard." Nula adds

"Nah, it's fine," Samantha says as she gets up, the pain meds working as her pain dulls, "I might need some help getting ready though."

The three men in the room leave as Sam stands and moves to her armor.


End file.
